Weekend Box Office: Insidious 2 Has Scary Good Opening; The Family a Distant Second

It was another impressive weekend for September, as a horror sequel delivered good luck for Friday the 13th and a mob comedy also had a decent start. Overall, the box office was up a whopping 31% compared to last year and the September box office blues have been staved off (at least for now). It remains to be seen if the rest of the month can deliver as impressive numbers as we've seen thus far - I would bet against it, but then things have gone good so far, right?

1) INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2

James Wan is now in very impressive company. For only the second time ever one director has had two films open with over $40 million in the same year. He joins only the Wachowski siblings who managed that same feat in 2003 with The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revelations. Earlier this year The Conjuring opened with $41.9 million and now Insidious: Chapter 2 has delivered a $41 million opening itself. That opening is second only to Hotel Transylvania ($42.5 million) as the best September opening and trails only The Conjuring and Paranormal Activity 3 as the highest opening for a supernatural horror film. The fact is opened on Friday the 13th probably helped, as it earned about half its money on that date. The mostly male (52%) and young (64% under 25) audience awarded it a B+ cinemascore, meaning it should hold up well for a horror film. Still, I would expect this to, like many horror films, have a larger-than-average second week drop. It will probably fall short of $100 million, though $75 million seems more likely.

2) THE FAMILY

Luc Besson's mob comedy/action film The Family had a decent if unspectacular $14.5 million second-place opening. That is the second-best opening for Besson and the sixth best opening for distributor Relativity Media. Still, the film had the distinction of being awarded a poor C cinemescore average, meaning that the film likely won't be sticking around the theaters that long. Given the talent involved, however, I suspect it will make up a lot for home viewing and don't discount international markets from giving it an ever-so-slight boost as well. I think the main issue is that the film just seemed too darn generic to deliver any more than a middling opening. I think it's lucky it managed a second-place finish at all - I wasn't even sure it would be able to crack to top five.

3) RIDDICK

After the first place opening last weekend, Vin Diesel's passion project, Riddick, took a rather steep 63% hit at the box office. That dropped it down to third place with a hair over $7 million and raised its two-week total up to $31.28 million. It will be able to top the original Pitch Black (at just $39.24 million) but it won't likely get much higher as even a $50 million total seems unlikely at this point. This is another I will wait to watch at home as I just can't muster up enough enthusiasm to watch this in theaters.

4) LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER

The historic drama passed a milestone in its fifth weekend. With a $5.58 million fourth-place showing, The Butler passed the $100 million mark (just so). Considering its scant 33.6% drop, it''s likely The Butler will remain in the top five perhaps longer than either Insidious: Chapter 2 or The Family. One thing is for certain, passing the century mark surely gives it more fuel for turning up at the Oscars in some capacity.

5) WE'RE THE MILLERS

The popular comedy also keeps hanging around the top five - six weeks in and dropping under 30% - it continues to notch up impressive numbers. With another $5.4 million added, the total for We're the Millers now stands at $131.6 million and, dare I say, it still has a good chance of hitting that $150 million mark before it ends its time in theaters.

Outside the top five: Spanish language family film Instructions Not Included continued to add theaters but fell just outside the top five this weekend. Still, the $4.25 million it brought in was enough to cross the $25 million mark and it now stands at $26.58 million.

Way down in 16th place, the comedy This is the End finally crossed the $100 million mark - and stands at $100.4 million - meaning a super bonus in store for the stars.

Next week we get the dance battle film - Battle of the Year and the serious crime/drama film Prisoners. I have a feeling neither are likely to make many waves, but I've been surprised before.